October 25

Its Saturday the beginings of a holiday weekend, so I head down to the beach asap. There are an unbelievable amount of people already! Beach towels, chairs, sand castles, umbrellas, beach balls, boogie boards, flip flops, coolers, and people lots and lots of people! I try to go ahead and write down what the majority of people do on the beaches, but decide maybe counting is not the best way of doing this part of my project, visually I try and determine numbers and estimate what is going on

It seems that age groups plays a bit of a role in what people do on the beach as well as genders, while not crucially important the gender aspect was interesting to me.

young children (m/f)
The young kids tended to play in the sand close by their parents, usually had toys of some kind or something to facilitate in playing with the sand. Good place to note that children were either bundled up with little brimmed hats or completely nude. I heard from Geoff that children are often in the life guard station for burnt feet and minor cuts from digging in the sand.

teens to young adults(m)
The male group of say 15-25 seem to have the worst case of what I like to call "ants in the pants syndrome" these guys cant stay still. Some will lay down for a bit but then get up and do something else, a LOT of them come in groups and play ball or rough house a bit. Its pretty funny to watch someone who was brought up on rugby their entire life try throwing an American football around! haha hilarious results ensue! Some of them go out into the water messing around in the waves. None of them really bring furniture or towels, just bathing suit and a ball to throw around.

teens to young adults(f)
The female portion of this age group is a stark contrast with the opposite gender. The girls get to the beach bringing towels and hats and umbrellas and chairs and books and radios and drinks and nearly anything beach related. They find a spot set up their fortress and from afar could be pronounced legally dead if they didnt roll over or swat the occasional fly every once in a while. This group was very inactive compared to the boys.

Adults (m/f)
This group was the most relaxed group I think. They mostly kept to themselves sat quietly reading books or talking with someone. This group also seemed to move around a lot more as well, possibly because of rough housing boys or just wanting to stretch their legs. This group could be seen walking up and down the beaches, buying food, having picnics. A lot brought cameras and took pictures of the ocean and scenery.

People with children (m/f)
This group was a bit on the outside of the rest of the group, they were mostly adults which one would think would conform to the rest of the adults aka relaxing. But on the contrary this group was more active then even young boys. This group was seen to me as the entertainers or jesters really. They would be building castles, flying kites, feeding kids food, chasing blown away beach stuff, chasing their children, FINDING their children, shooing away seagulls, carrying their kids, trying to get their kids to stop crying from the wind that kicked up sand, putting their children on boogie boards and pulling them through the small waves, playing with their children, cleaning their children, putting suntan lotion on reluctant children, and my favorite carrying their children on their shoulders only to get icecream on their forehead!

There are always exceptions to the groups but people on the beach fall into two categories in the very much landscape architect groups of Active and Passive recreation

Active Recreation:
Ball throwing/sports
Running/jogging/exercising
Surfing/boogieboarding
Playing
Swimming
Horseback riding
Fishing
Climbing dunes or rocks

Passive Recreation:
Lounging/tanning
Reading/socializing
Walking
Picnicing/eating
Nature, scenery, or people watching
Tidal pool viewing